Shuos Zehun
Shuos Zehun is a Shuos administrator who is the personal assistant of Shuos Mikodez. They appear in Ninefox Gambit, Raven Stratagem, Revenant Gun, and the flashfic Irriz the Assassin-Cat. Appearance and Personality Zehun often has their appearance altered. They have been a slim manform with a dark face at least once; their various faces have been described as "cheerfully ugly."Raven Stratagem, Chapter 3 Their hair is long enough to tie back. Zehun is ageing and wears shawls in the workplace, claiming the temperature is kept too low. Although not normally superstitious, Zehun allows themselves irrationalities about matters such as Shuos JedaoRaven Stratagem, Chapter 4 and the designation of the Room of Guns.Raven Stratagem, Chapter 26 Zehun is the only person who fully understands the layout and security measures of the Citadel of Eyes. They are normally a stickler for nomenclature and correct bureaucratic procedure,Raven Stratagem, Chapter 26 and it is a bad idea to waste their time.Raven Stratagem, Chapter 8 Zehun uses a form of sign language with Mikodez.Raven Stratagem, Chapter 27 Zehun hates it when Mikodez signs off before they can respond to something.Raven Stratagem, Chapter 25 Last time Mikodez suggested a vacation, Zehun scrambled his noncritical custom grid interfaces in retaliation.Raven Stratagem, Chapter 25 Mikodez considers Zehun, whom he first knew as "a quiet person with unquiet ideas about how the Shuos should be run," to be "the glue holding this place together."Raven Stratagem, Chapter 25 Zehun likes cats and always keeps one or more as pets, keeping them in their office and often bringing a cat on family visitsIrriz the Assassin-Cat or to Mikodez's office, even during serious meetings. Their cats are habitually named after notorious Shuos assassins, and they decline to confirm this as a commentary on Shuos assassins' intelligence.Raven Stratagem, Chapter 4 Personal life Zehun has raised five children, and thought they were done with raising teenagers after that.Raven Stratagem, Chapter 27 Hragoshik Verrisen, Zehun's second daughter, has a daughter named Piri, who enjoys the occasional visit from her 'Gran.'Irriz the Assassin-Cat At the time of the Hafn invasion, Zehun had four grandchildren, with a fifth on the way;Raven Stratagem, Chapter 25 by nine years later, they had great-grandchildren.Revenant Gun, Chapter 36 Zehun's cats have included a black kitten,Raven Stratagem, Chapter4 who might have grown into one of two later black cats;Hexarchate Stories: Glass Cannon Irriz; Fenez and Jienji; and, eventually, Jedao. Career As an instructor, Zehun was sent with an assassination team to assess Vauhan Mikodez, a second-year Shuos cadet whose signifier had briefly shifted to Ninefox Crowned with Eyes during an evaluation. Zehun chose not to have Mikodez culled.Raven Stratagem, Chapter 25 A late growth spurt in subsequent years left Mikodez a bit taller than Zehun. Mikodez remembers Zehun's don't play innocent cadet look vividly.Raven Stratagem, Chapter 4 Zehun's support was a critical part of Mikodez's rise to power.Raven Stratagem, Chapter 25 Zehun served two other hexarchs before Mikodez, the last for only three years. When Mikodez visited his predecessor, who had retired to breed cockatiels, Zehun had to talk him out of bringing a cockatiel home as a pet.Raven Stratagem, Chapter 9 During Mikodez's seventh year as hexarch, Zehun yelled at him for quarreling with Kujen on Kujen's home station over whether Jedao should know that he had been the prototype for formation instinct.Raven Stratagem, Chapter 9 Zehun was lent to Kel Academy Secondary during Rhezny Brezan’s first three or more years as cadet; they wore many faces during that time, "all of them cheerfully ugly," and did not need to wear faction or rank insignia because everybody recognized them as Mikodez's assistant. They were a slim manform when leading Brezan’s third-year class through the Purple Paranoia exercise.Raven Stratagem, Chapter 2 During Mikodez's thirty-fourth year as hexarch, he forgot to eat. Zehun has never let him live it down.Raven Stratagem, Chapter 25 Mikodez asked if they would take immortality in his stead, but they refused, unwilling to spend eternity with people who always turned their paperwork in late.Raven Stratagem, Chapter 25 Trivia * Zehun (and cats) will appear as "The Empty Hand" in Hexarchate Tarot.Author's remarks The card represents potential for advancement and the opening of new possibilities; reversed, it symbolizes misunderstandings and being trapped in one's current position.Hexarchate Tarot: Major Arcana * Zehun, unlike Mikodez, is a crocheter rather than a knitter. The author suspects "they have flamewars about knitting vs. crocheting."Author's remarks * Zehun mentions Lieutenant General Kel Sumaarzaav as "that one Kel general whose name I can never pronounce." * Brezan considered blaming Zehun when the blade of his calendrical sword appeared red-yellow during a scrying session.Raven Stratagem, Chapter 12 References Category:Shuos Category:Humans Category:Alive Category:Alts